Inspirational Weekly Parsha Insights and anecdotes of Rabbi Schwartz and his never dull family as they acclimate and absorb into their new home in Karmiel Israel, having made Aliyah- August 2010

Karmiel

Our view of the Galile

Friday, March 13, 2015

Israel Store-y Vayakhel /Pikudei / Parah 2015/5775

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land
from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

March
13th2015 -Volume
5, Issue 20 -22nd of Adar 5775

Parshas Va'Yakhel/Pikudei/Parah

Israel Store-y

Being raised in America one gets used to a
certain type of shopping experience Stores are there to serve you. Wal-Mart’s
has its greeters with their little smiley stickers that cheerfully welcome you
their store. The customer service desks are exactly that. There are refund
policies. Social loyalty programs. It’s nice. We take it for granted. At least
until you make Aliyah….

Here in Israel the laws of the Shuk
reign supreme. There are no prices on items. It’s not about how much it costs
but how much you can pay. Convenience stores are generally inconvenient,
opening and closing at their own whims and hours. Supermarkets expect you to
bag your own items, pay for your shopping cart and buy what you need quick and
get out of the way very fast, so that someone else can move along the line.
Perhaps most frustrating to many is the tease you get when you call a company’s
customer service line and are delighted to hear “Press 3 for English”, only to
find out that it is really just a ploy to push you to the end of the line and
delay your being answered another 10 minutes. Only then to be connected to an
Israeli that doesn’t speak a word of English- although she could ask her friend
who speaks Russian to help out.

But on the other hand, and of course you
knew I would ask you to look at the other hand there are many special things
that you experience here in your shopping that you don’t get other places as
well. Most stores will extend you credit if you are a little short. They’ll
watch your kids while you run out for a second. Many times you can be lucky
enough to catch a Minyan in your grocery store. It’s nice to see the man
behind the counter learning a Jewish book, playing Jewish music or just even
talking our ancient language.

`
Even more touching though, is that more
often than not if they see you purchasing something they’ll recommend you buy a
cheaper alternative or one on sale that may even be of a better quality. Many
times I was even told don’t buy it today wait until tomorrow the prices are
going down. It’s funny, how Israelis respond to you in this way. They aren’t
–God forbid trying to offer you customer service- it’s just that their natural
instinct of seeing you pay more than you should or being put in a bind for a
silly reason overcomes their natural shuk instinct to take advantage of
you. Whereas in America in general there is a concept of maintaining customer
loyalty with good service excellent refund policies, and in general a helpful
demeanor, here in Israel there is no long term vision or agenda about getting
you to become a repeat customer; they feel that they’re doing you a favor
selling to you in the first place. Rather the help and perks you get are more
of a sincere family nature; they are more about one Jew helping another.

I read a story this week that really
encapsulates this attitude. There was an older Yerushalmi carpenter who
struggled daily to build bookcases for a living in a neighborhood where people
barely had money to put food on their tables. One day an older American retiree
came into his shop and asked him if he would build him a living room shelving
unit that was comparable to the nice ones that he used to have in America.
After taking the elaborate order for this rather ostentatious unit the
carpenter asked who he was purchasing it for. When the American informed him
that he had recently moved to Israel and wanted to retire and live his last
years here in Israel similarly to the way he did in the States. The carpenter
refused to build it for him. Though he was desperate for the business, he
couldn’t bring himself to complete the order.

He explained to the would-be customer,

“If a young couple comes to me and
asks for a strong, sturdy, beautiful piece of furniture, I look at them and
think that this young, happy couple is just starting out, with many years ahead
of them. I am thus more than happy to build them the stuff of their dreams. But
you are already older. You should know by now how temporary life is. How can
you build yourself furniture like what you’re describing to me?”

Customer service? Not so much.
An incredible shopping and learning experience that you can’t get anywhere
else? Definitely.

This story sheds light on perhaps the greatest
lesson of this weeks Torah portion. We have spent so many weeks discussing the
building of the Mishkan. Yet once again the Torah recounts for us in
full detail the donations of all the particular materials that each Jew gave to
the building campaign. What is perhaps most remarkable is that this building is
only meant to be a temporary structure. It should have lasted for a mere few
weeks until the Jews arrived in Israel and built their permanent Temple. Yet
the outpouring of money and donations was unparalleled to any other campaign
since then, The Torah tells us that there was enough money and even extra. Does
it make sense that for such a temporary structure, there should be such a huge
campaign? Even more perplexing is that this Mishkan was meant to be
atonement for the sin of the Golden Calf. Can it be that by merely donating
money to the “synagogue coffers” the Jews can rectify perhaps the most grievous
sin of all of Jewish history? How does one thing fix the sin of the other?

The answer is that it was precisely
the process of donating as much as they could for a temporary dwelling, that
they were able to begin the process of undoing the roots of the problem of the
Golden Calf. The Calf was created because the Jewish people took a long look at
their future. How will we make it in the Wilderness without Moshe our guide and
our leader? Who will provide for us? What will become of us down the road? We
need a long term plan and the Golden Calf was created to provide and fill that
role. What Hashem was telling the Jewish people was, don’t worry about the big
picture. Rather you put your all into doing the right thing for the here and
now. Build me a home that is temporary, with all that you can and I will reside
in it. You need not fear or worry about what will come tomorrow. Your job is to
make sure that everything is being done right and to the utmost for today.

Interestingly enough, that “temporary” Mishkan
and its vessels lasted longer than each of the Batei Mikdash Temples.
The Tabernacle was with them their entire sojourn in the Wilderness. It was in
Gilo, Shiloh and rebuilt in Nov and Givon and lasted about 480 years. The
temporary merited longevity. The building that was donated with a mindset of
doing the right thing in the here and now ended up being the place that they
called the home of Hashem for the longest period of time.

The lessons of that campaign 3000 years ago
still ring true for us today. Are we focused on long term projects at the
expense of missing out on opportunities to do chesed and achieve
spiritual goals today? Are we too focused on our “permanent” homes in our
temporary existence and forgetting our eternal lives and our connection to the
transcendent? Maybe we spend too much time checking out prices and finding the
best deals and worrying about how we’re being treated. The Israeli shopper is
certainly not looking for the “shopping experience”. They are more
focused on the living experience. Maybe it is because the people here feel life
and time are more fragile and precious. Perhaps it is the lessons engrained so
long ago in psyche of that temporary Mishkan. We all have our “Golden Calf”
weaknesses fears and projects that hold us back. That may be preventing us from
contributing, from growing or from becoming as great as we could be. May
Hashem give us the wisdom and strength of faith to let us move beyond them and
create an Eternal life.

While in the states I picked up a great book with yiidsh quotes and wisdom
and I have always wanted to teach my kids Yiddish so here we go each week
another great proverb in yiddish maybe you guys will learn it too!!

“A
beheyme hot a lange tsung un ken keyn brokhe nit zogn”

Even though a cow has a long tongue, it can’t recite
a blessing.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S FAVORITE COW QUOTES OF THE WEEK

"When a cow laughs, does milk come out
her nose?” ~Author Unknown

"Scientists tell us that the fastest
animal on earth, with a top speed of 120 feet per second, is a cow that has
been dropped out of a helicopter.” ~Dave Barry

“Sacred cows make the best hamburgers.”
~Mark Twain

RABBI
SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

(answer below at end of Email)

Which of the
following was the earliest Jewish neighborhood?

A.Neve
Tsedek

B.Neve
Shalom

C.Ahuzat
Bayit

D.Kerem
HaTeimanim

.RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL MIDRASH OF THE WEEK

The Mishkan was completed be
being built on the 25th of Kislev , The Midrash tells us, however
that Hashem wanted it to be erected on Rosh Chodesh Nissan. However to make it
up to Kislev, Hashem gave it the holiday of Chanukah instead. For almost three
months, the midrash says Moshe would put it up and take it down. All of the
scoffers made fun and said that moshe would never be able to bring the Shechina
down. When the first of Nissan came everyone else tried to put it together, but
were unsuccessful. Moshe finally came and merely touched the beams and wadda
boom wadda bing it came together. Pretty amazin!

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL THINGS TO DO IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK

Kibbutz experience – This is the only where real
socialist societies still take place. Sure the Kibbutz movement is pretty
defunct and mostly privatized, yet there are still many young teen-agers and
young adults that come here and join the kibbutz pick bananas, oranges or take
care of cattle. Most get pretty burnt out after a while and get back to their
nice comfortable capitalist lifestyles. But its definitely a cool thing to do
and experience. Work without getting paid having to share responsibilities,
watching how group decisions take place and to a large degree a loss of privacy
and autonomy for the group. It’s not an easy life but to a large degree its an
interesting one, your needs are taken care of and you are part of a community
and society for better and for worse. One thing si certain there’s really not
too many other places in the world where you can try out this lifestyle and
certainly none where you can do this at a shomer Shabbat place. For a taste of
the ideologues that started this country a Kibbutz is certainly a place to get
that feel.

******************

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COW JOKES OF THE WEEK

“Why was the
calf afraid? He was a cow-herd

Why wouldn’t
anyone play with the little longhorn? He was too much of a bully!

What sound
do you hear when you drop a bomb on a cow? Cowboom!

What would
you hear at a cow concert? Moo-sic!

What’s a
cow’s least moosical note? Beef-flat!

What do cows
do for entertainment? They go to the mooooovies.

What do cows
like to do at amoosement parks? Ride on the roller cowster

What kind of
cows do you find in Alaska? Eski-moos!

********************

There were
these two cows, chatting over the fence between their fields. The first cow
said, "I tell you, this mad-cow-disease is really pretty scary. They say
it is spreading fast; I heard it hit some cows down on the Johnson Farm."
The other cow replies, "Hell, I ain't worried, it don't affect us
ducks."

*********************

Who’s
old enough to get this one J?

There was a
herd of cattle all standing on a hill when an earthquake struck. All of the
cows fell down, but the bull remained standing. The farmer noticing this went
out and asked the bull, "Why didn't you fall down like the rest of the
herd. The bull replied, "We bulls wobble, but we don't fall down."

*************

And finally…

Knock
knock.

Who's there?

Cows go.

Cows go who?

No, silly.
Cows go MOOOOOO!

*************************************************************

Answer
is A: First thing to do is figure out what these things have in common.
Most of you if not all of you don’t know… That’s because you didn’t go to a
tour guiding course like I did J or if you did you may have deleted that
information. But anyways the above except for one are early neighborhoods
outside of yaffo that led to and eventually became the development of Tel Aviv.
Neve Tzedek was the first in 1887. It was established by religious Jews after
the success of the neighborhoods that were built outside of Yerushalayim.
Acutally called that after the verse in yirmiyahu (31:22) “ So Said Hashem
god of Hosts, they will again say in the land of Yehuda and its cities, when I
return their returnees. Hashem will bless his Neve Tzedek-His abode of Justice,
the Holy mountain..”. The community was established to offer more
affordable housing and fresh air for the returning immigrants as Yaffo was
overstuffed within the walls. Rav Kook was first chief Rabbi there. The
Teimanim came afterwards in early 1900’s from the Yemenite Aliya. And Ahuzat
Bayit was the predecessor to Tel Aviv. Neve Shalom has nothing to do with the
question, they’re just hoping you get confused between that neve tzedek but it
also helped me figure out the right answer because I realized that they were
trying to trick me although I wasn’t sure if tzedek or teimanim was first…
cool!

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About Me

Hi, thanks for popping in. I am a recent Oleh. My wife Aliza and children Shani, Yonah, Rivkah, Elka and Tully recently moved to Karmiel Israel from Seattle Washington where we used to have a little Shul in our home the West Seattle TLC (Torah Learning Center). I have been involved in Jewish educational outreach for over 15 years. Originally a Detroiter, we have been lucky enough to live in Midwood New York, Des Moines Iowa, Norfolk Virginia and Seattle. I'm just a down to earth guy who would rather talk in the front of the shul than the back so i became a Rabbi where that becomes your job. I love Jews,Stories, Israel, and chulent. Recently we opened up the Young Israel of Karmiel and look forward to greeting the many North American and Anglo Olim who will join us here in the beautiful Galil.
Please comment away I thrive on your input. Thanks!

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